TIPS TO CREATE A BRAND-BOOSTING WELCOME EMAIL

We’ve covered the first three steps of the 5-Step Activation Process.

You’re now equipped to create a lead magnet and optimize your site

to capture and convert traffic to subscribers. This is where a new

reader becomes a subscriber, and one of the first communications

they receive from you is the welcome email.

Welcome emails have the highest open rates among all emails14

with the average open rate for welcome emails being 50%15. But

most welcome emails don’t do a brand any justice largely because of

the following seven reasons.

7 THINGS YOUR WELCOME EMAIL MUST DO (BUT PROBABLY DOESN’T!)

1. Your welcome email sounds completely different from your other content

Your brand has a voice. It’s the tone you use to communicate with

your audience. And that voice is infused into your content and your

interaction with your readers.

The words, tone, and style you use in your content say a lot about

your brand.

Your subscribers likely read a few of your blog posts or watch a

couple of videos before opting into your email list. And when they

do, are they getting the same brand experience? Or do you sound

like a completely different person?

Most people clamp up when it comes to writing emails, but an email

is just like a blog post.

It’s an extension of your brand. So a consistent brand voice is

essential.

2. Your welcome email doesn’t state why you are the best person to help them

It doesn’t matter what niche your business is in. Most of our

businesses exist to entertain, educate, or inspire our readers and

customers.

Identify the purpose of your business:

• Are you educating a reader about healthy eating?

• Are you inspiring him/her to fix her money mindset?

• Are you educating your reader about how he/she can travel the

world on a shoestring budget?

Now that you have identified this, why are you the best person to

inspire, educate, or teach your subscriber about this?

This is where lots of people have hesitations about not being an

expert. You don’t need to be an expert. You don’t need to have a

certification or be blogging for an insanely long period of time. You

don’t need to earn six figures or be an author as well.

You just need to be two steps ahead of your reader or ideal

customer.

Are there certain things you did that made you clear your college

debt within three years? Have you slashed your grocery budget

through meal planning? Have you visited more than ten countries on

a limited budget?

While these may seem ordinary to you, there are people who would

love to do some of what you’ve done. So share your experiences in

your welcome email and give them a glimpse of what they can learn

from you and what change they can expect by reading your content.

If you’ve been featured on high-profile sites or podcasts, this is also

your tiny space to let your new subscriber know about it. They need

to know you’re a trusted source, so don’t hesitate to share your

achievements, no matter how small.

3. Your welcome email does not hint at an invitation to converse with you

You may have heard about the importance of asking your subscriber

“What are you struggling with?”

This phrase was popularized by Derek Halpern of Social Triggers,

and you may have seen several of your favorite bloggers asking the

same question in their emails.

While that very term “What are you struggling with?” is getting pretty

clichéd, the principle behind it is to encourage the reader to share

their thoughts with you. By opening a conversation loop, you invite

feedback and are able to peek directly into what your subscriber

needs. This gives you insight into the content and products you

possibly can offer.

But what can you ask without sounding like 95% of the online

entrepreneurs out there?

If you’re a travel blogger, you could ask them what region or country

they want to conquer next and what their biggest hurdles are with

traveling.

If your business is about organic living, you could ask them what

questions they have about shopping for organic food.

Your question has to be simple and specific to your niche. You can

do this in the postscript or P.S. of your email.

But be prepared to get replies. And if you want to nurture your

audience, respond to as many of those emails as you can. We spoke

briefly about brand accessibility in section 1. If you don’t intend to be

accessible via email, set expectations right from the start.

4. Your welcome email promises you won’t send too many emails

I’ve seen this in several welcome emails I’ve reviewed. Yes, you’re

being considerate of your subscribers’ time and space. But these

new subscribers opted in because they like your content and feel

that you can help them. Why would they not want your emails

especially if this is something they opted in to?

Your audience will unsubscribe if they’re not comfortable with your

email frequency. But this shouldn’t be a reason to email your list any

less especially if you have a good reason to email them.

5. Your welcome email sounds like a goodbye

Will I hear from you again?

Will I only get updates?

Is this goodbye?

Several welcome emails I’ve reviewed don’t give the reader a

glimpse of what’s coming next?

Will they get more emails? What are you going to be sharing?

A welcome email is a conversation. You want them to think about

things and look forward to seeing your name in their inbox. This

works best when you have a nurture sequence that follows your

welcome email. More on that in the next section.

6. Your welcome email does not tease and intrigue

How do you make your subscriber anticipate your next email? How

do you get them to look out for your name in their inbox? How do

you keep them on edge thinking about something you raised?

You can do so by adding a dash of tease and intrigue in your

welcome email.

Close your email with a question. Here are some examples of how to

do this:

Do you know that 90% of what people believe about organic

vegetables is wrong? I’ll tell you what that myth is tomorrow and how

it’s going to help you cut your expenditure by up to 50%.

Do you know how long it takes for your body to form a habit? The

answer will shock you. Look out for that tomorrow.

When you tease, you also need to ensure that you close the loop in

the next email.

7. Your welcome email has too many asks

Help me with a survey

What product should I create?

What blog posts should I write?

While it’s not wrong to ask your audience to help you with

something, an ask made too soon or an ask that is clearly only

beneficial to you is a huge NO.

It can also be downright repulsive.

Likewise, think carefully about the links you place in your welcome

email.

Which social platforms are most important to you? Where do you

want them to follow you? What do you want them to do?

Choose your links accordingly so that the reader takes the action

that you want them to take.

Giving too many choices ends up being counterproductive and it

confuses the reader.

ACTION

Have a look at your welcome email now. Have you included the

following?

• Explained who you are and what you do

• Explained why you are the best person to learn from

• Described what they can expect from you

• Asked them to follow you on 1–2 social media platforms

• Opened a curiosity loop (in the P.S.) about what your next email

will be about

• Asked a specific question and encouraged a reply